A Thousand Years
by emagin
Summary: "Nobody finds their soulmate at birth."  Can heartbreak be mended?   Does happiness come out of tragedy?
1. Prologue

EDWARD

Two hundred fifty feet. The runway I'm about to land on is two hundred fifty feet long, and it's moving away from me at thirty knots. It's also bouncing back and forth, nearly from flat on one side to flat on the other in the high waves of the sea. Crosswinds are at thirty miles an hour. It's pouring down rain and visibility is shit. Oh yeah, and it's pitch black night. Most would think being pitch black would be a good thing since the runway is lit up like a Christmas tree, but what those people don't realize is that I've got about three feet on either tip of the wings for error. Over three feet and I'm either taking off somebody's head or one of my wings.

There's a wire stretched across the runway, which I have about 30 feet to snatch with my tail hook, or else I'm gonna fly off the end of the runway and into the ocean, unless I can hit the afterburners fast enough for another takeoff, in which case, I'd have to start all over again.

And I'm unfocused. The most dangerous thing to a pilot is lack of focus. On takeoff a few hours ago I was unfocused and dropped 10 feet off the end of the runway before hitting my afterburners and pulling up. That's not supposed to happen. My CO is gonna have my ass for that one when I get back onboard. Fucking up the landing would only make it worse.

I listen to the NCO in my headset and go in for the landing.

I didn't realize I'd come in at an angle, so that when I touched down on the flight deck, I touched down with one wheel a few seconds before the other. When my tail hook grabbed the wire and I was jerked to a stop, the weight wasn't evenly distributed by any means, and I jerked the plan right over onto it's back. A complete flip.

A couple million dollars in government equipment completely smashed.

Oh, and there was a fire. Jet fuel tends to have that effect on an already bad situation.

The hood of the cockpit shattered on impact so I apparently unbuckled the harness and crawled out to safety... with a head injury and multiple burns on my body. Luckily, I was the only one hurt.

The medics drug me to the edge of the flight deck to try to stabilized me as the fire crew got to work on the wreckage of my jet and the chopper was readied to medi-vac me out for medical attention.

I don't remember any of that. The last thing I remember is coming in to land, getting the OK to hit the deck with my F-18. After that, all I remember is seeing _her_ face, and wishing that I was back stateside with her instead of trying to out on some floating city in the middle of the ocean. I didn't even like water, much less boats.


	2. Chapter 1

BELLA

"How is he?" I was careful to keep my voice low as I found Esme in her gourmet kitchen. The Cullen house was huge, easily considered a mansion, but there was no telling where Edward was. Alice had assured me that he was sleeping almost 24 hours a day since coming home from Walter Reed, but there was no such thing as too careful.

"He's just woken up," Esme smiled at me, but it didn't reach her eyes. Of course not, her youngest son had just come very close to death, "Edward will be glad to see you."

"Oh, I don't think he would. I just wanted to check in and make sure he's okay. He doesn't need to know I'm here, I just wanted to bring this," I motion to the large container of chicken noodle soup from my grandmother's recipe, "he always liked this when he got back stateside. He said it was comforting."

"I think he found it more comforting because you had made it," she said in her wisdomly way, "I know you've broken up or whatever, but I think he would enjoy your company."

"Esme..."

"Nonsense, either go say hello or I'll make sure to put coconut in everything I serve on your next visit." I knew she'd do it too. She knew I was allergic, but she knew I'd only break out in itchy hives. It wouldn't be life threatening.

"Fine, but if he chases me out of here with a baseball bat, I'm blaming it on you." She laughed as if I were joking, but I was completely serious.

"He's in his room," she shooed me out of the kitchen.

I took a few deep breaths at the bottom of the stairs and then went up. I could find his room with my eyes closed. I'd been here so many times as a kid, as an adult, it was practically my childhood home as well as his.

I knocked softly on the door, hoping he had fallen asleep again, but no such luck.

"Come in." His voice was still velvety smooth, but it sounded exhausted, pained.

I slowly opened the door and waited at the threshold, waited for his reaction. No one had prepared me for mine.

His hands and arms were bandaged up to his elbow. It looked like he had extremely thick mittens on. His face still held the tell-tale yellow of bruises fading. His head was shaved in a patch just behind his left ear and his left leg was in a cast to just above his knee. There were healing cuts and scrapes scattered across his body.

"Bella..." he was taken off guard. He didn't expect to see me. I should have known better. I did know better.

"I'm sorry, Esme sent me up. I'll leave, I'm just... I'm glad you're... alive," I turned to race back downstairs but his voice caught me before I could really take a step.

"Don't go, Bella. Come here... I mean, If you can, come here."

I turned to face him, "If I can?"

He shrugged, then flinched in pain, and I saw that his shoulder was bandaged underneath his t-shirt, "Everybody seems to find it hard to come in here. They don't say it, but I can tell. They're uncomfortable."

"Well, it is kind of hard to see you like this," I slowly walked over and sat on the side of the bed as softly as possible so I wouldn't jar him, "I mean, you're supposed to be bulletproof, ya know?"

"Apparently I'm not bulletproof afterall," he tried to smile, but there was something else, something behind his eyes that prevented him from doing so.

"I was scared when I heard," I confess, and immediately hate myself for it, but I'd never been able to keep anything from Edward. Not even when I got my period at 13 and he'd asked why I was being so bitchy. There were never any secrets between us.

"I was scared when I heard, too."

"You don't remember it?"

"I remember going in for the landing but..." he paused, as if there were something else he was going to say, and then thought better of, "I don't remember the actual crash, which wasn't exactly a crash. It was merely a flip of a jet."

"Oh, just merely a flip of a jet? Huh. Well, looking at you, it seems more like you got ran over by a mack truck."

"Can't win 'em all."

"You know what I don't get? Your job basically consists of you being in the equivalent of a soup can with wings, built by the cheapest guy, flying through the air while sitting on top of enough jet fuel to get you hundreds of miles, and you can't wait to get to it. Doesn't seem very safe to me," I teased him.

"Says the girl that's still driving that hunk of junk truck of yours. I don't even think it's street legal."

"Hey, my truck is reliable."

"So is my jet... well, until I fucked it up, but that wasn't the jet's fault. It was the weather's... and mine."

"When will you know if you're going back?"

"I'll go back, Bella. As soon as all of this is healed up. There's no lasting damage. Some scars, but nothing that can take my wings."

I nodded.

"I know you hate that."

"No, I don't hate it. I mean, I hate that you'll be going back. I'll only worry more now, but I'd hate it more if they took your wings. You'd die without your wings."

"You don't need to worry about it."

"Because you're going back?"

"Because I'm not really your concern anymore. Bella, I am glad that you came. I was scared that things would never be okay between us, so I'm glad to see that we can be around each other, but it'll never be the way it was. You don't need to worry about me anymore."

"Edward, you're my best friend..."

"No, I was your boyfriend, fiance, actually. Maybe I was your best friend too, but I was the other things more than anything, and now I'm not."

"...I'm sorry."

"I'm fine. A little beat up, but fine. You came to check on me, and now you've seen with your own eyes. You can leave."

"I don't want to leave."

"Bella..." he wouldn't look at me, which bothered me to no end. He couldn't even look at me?"

"I didn't ask for this."

"You asked for space, did you not?"

"Yeah, but..."

"I gave you an entire ocean for four months."

"I know, but..."

"You don't understand why I love my job so much? My tin soup can with wings? Well, I don't understand how a person can just wake up one day and not know if they love the person they've been with practically since birth anymore or not. How all of a sudden, after 7 years of supporting that person in their career, you're not game anymore. I don't understand that."

"I'll go. Esme will be mad that I've upset you."

"Esme will be fine until she realizes that I'm going back as soon as I get this fucking cast off."

I walked towards the door, pausing in the frame, "Edward, I never said I didn't know if I loved you or not. Of course I love you. I always have. I always will. I said I didn't know what it was that I wanted anymore, and I think that can be expected from anyone that's been with the same person since birth."

"Don't come back," his voice was suddenly acidic.

I nodded, "I'll just leave this here, then."

I silently unlatched my necklace and pulled the ring off the chain, the ring Edward had given me when he'd asked me to marry him, and sat it on the small table just inside of the door.

"I'm glad that you're going to be okay. I hope that you stay that way."

I turned to go down the hallway, and while I'm pretty sure he didn't mean for me too, I heard him softly say, "I'll never be okay again."


	3. Chapter 2

EDWARD

Six month slater I was cleared to fly and went straight back to work. I had been transferred to a different carrier, but I didn't care as long as I had my wings.

My first night back in the air, I had to land under the same conditions as I had the night of the crash. I blocked out the knowledge that I had fucked this up and nearly killed myself the last time, blocked out the image of Bella's face, and nailed it, no problem.

I tried to feel badly for what I'd said to Bella the last time I saw her, but I couldn't. I was angry with her, so angry. Bella and I had met, literally, at her birth. Our mom's had us in the same nursery and Bella's glass bassinet was put right next to mine in the nursery. Our mother's bonded in the recovery room and were inseparable after that, which meant that Bella and I were, too. We became fast friends, growing up together. When I was sixteen I finally asked her out, and when I was seventeen I realized how much I loved her. At twenty two I realized that I'd been in love with Bella my whole life and asked her to marry me. She said yes. At twenty five she decided that she didn't know what she wanted and called everything off. A break, she'd said, some space, time to figure it all out. She went home and I went to the East Coast to catch up with a carrier deploying. Four months later I crashed my plane, came home, and got my ring back. Six months later, there I was, back in my plane, away from it all, but it didn't last long.

I was connected to the USS Lincoln in Everett Washington, so when we were in port, I was expected to be home as much as possible. We were pulling back into port in six hours. In six hours my mother would cry because I was still alive. My father would pat my back and beam proudly at me, his Naval Pilot son. My older brother would come up from his Army base a little ways south, Ft. Lewis, and my sister would put together a big family dinner back at the family home we all grew up in.

Bella would be invited. She was practically family.

I had gotten a few emails while deployed, but internet was spotty from the middle of the sea. Nobody said anything about Bella. I didn't dare ask. I didn't think I wanted to know.

I eventually got over my anger with Bella during that deployment, let it go, something. I didn't feel it anymore. I felt hurt. I felt alone. I felt betrayed that I had counted on something and she changed her mind, but I wasn't angry.

I was, however, terrified to see her again. What if she'd moved on? Was she seeing anyone? Would I be able to be in the same room as her after a year of not seeing nor hearing from her? I didn't know, and I wasn't prepared.

I couldn't wait to get off of this ship, though. I was tired of the barracks, the tiny little beds. The narrow hallways. Eating the same things every week. The only thing I never tired of was being in the air, but there were no flight operations today, not with us readying for homecoming.

The best feeling in the world is sitting on the flight deck in my F-18 and feeling slight jolt of the catapult securing onto the front landing gear of my plane. Then I go full throttle, the break releases, and I'm catapulted forward from 0 to 180 miles per hour in less than 250 feet. At the end I hit the afterburners and I'm airborne. It's the craziest, most thrilling, most terrifying feeling in the world. It's the roller coaster of your life.

I needed that feeling right now. That near-overdose of adrenaline, that complete and utter happiness that comes with being catapulted off the end of an aircraft carrier, but I wouldn't get it.

"The first thing I'm gonna do when I get home, is fuck my wife three ways towards the weekend," the conversations around me broke through my thoughts. This was a fun game everyone had been playing later. The 'when I get home...' game. It was a popular one during a deployment.

"I'm not even gonna make it home, I told my girl to book a room at the closest hotel to the gate."

"Fuck a hotel room, I'ma hit it in the car."

"I just want to stand on solid ground, man, I'm sick of this boat."

"What about you Cullen?"

I looked up to see one of the flight deck crew guys looking at me, "I haven't really thought about it," I admit.

"You don't have a girl?"

I shake my head.

"Nah, Cullen's one of them deployment junkies. He thrives off this shit."

"I thrive off being in the air," I correct, "I just prefer to deploy and fly instead of being a fucking instructor somewhere."

"Why not volunteer for the front lines? Navy Pilots can do that, volunteer for a more forward position, be stationed in Afghanistan with the Army or some shit."

I nodded, "Now that, I have thought about."

"Figures," the nameless guy laughed, "You're one of those war junkies."

I shrugged, "I know what to expect from deployment. Everything is scheduled. Back home, you never know what's gonna come up; what the people you're closest to are gonna do to you. At least out here, I know that my buddies have got my back, and I've got theirs, and that's not going to change. I know what time to eat, when to sleep, when to shit, when to shower, when to email back home and sugarcoat everything, and most importantly, I know I'm gonna be in the air damn near everyday."

"Hey Cullen, what would you do if they ever took your wings?"

"Easy," I knew the answer to this one, "On my last flight, I'd put it straight into the ground."


	4. Chapter 3

BELLA

"How's the pain?" Rosalie asked, sitting on the foot of the bed that had become mine. I was staying in what used to be the guest bedroom of the Cullen house, but over the better part of the last year, it had become mine.

"I'm good. It's more of an ache now."

"That's good. Alice is downstairs getting everything on the table, ordering Emmett around like a minion. The other's will be back any minute with Edward. Are you ready for dinner?"

"I think I'm just going to stay up here."

"Bella, it's been a year. I'm sure you two can make it through one dinner."

"Edward's been gone for six months, he should get his first night home without his ex girlfriend in his face."

"You're family. You're coming. That's the end of it."

I sat still while Rosalie flat ironed my hair, dabbed on some makeup, and got me dressed. This had become a routine over the past months. Esme would cook all my favorite things in an attempt to make me feel better. Carlisle was constantly checking vitals and going over test results. Jasper would come in and play games or watch movies. When Emmett and Rose were in town they'd bring books and magazines for me and Rose and Alice would take turns getting me all dolled up, hoping it'd make me feel better.

It had been a rough year, but it was over now. I was in the beginning stages of making my 'comeback,' as everyone else called it.

If nothing else in the past year had been good, at least I'd finally finished my first book and gotten it published. It had been a success, too. I was currently working on my followup.

"Beautiful," Rose stood back and admired her work, "You know, Bella, I feel like I can say this now, now that it's all over. I'm really glad you pulled through. I was scared I'd lose my best friend for a while. I'm really happy that I didn't."

"Me too, Rose. Me too."

EDWARD

I sat across from Bella at the dining room table throughout dinner and dessert, and still when everyone was done eating and just talking. On the ride to my parents' home from the base, my dad had told me that Bella was staying at the house and recovering from surgery, but nobody said what. There was an awkwardness hanging over everything that nobody was addressing. I couldn't figure out if it was the mysterious surgery or the fact that Bella and I would be in the same room again.

I don't know what the big deal was, we were adults. I could maintain self control around the ex girlfriend long enough to make it through one dinner.

I studied Bella as Alice filled everyone in on the latest wedding she was planning for her event planning firm. Her hair was short, barely past her shoulders. She must have cut it recently, because it was usually nearly to her waist. She had lost some weight and was thin. Almost too thin. Her eyes weren't as bright as usual.

...and her chest was bigger. Not drastically bigger, but I noticed it.

"Did you get a boob job?" I blurted before I could help myself, and the room fell silent. Bella looked around for help, but it seemed that everyone was too shocked to come to her rescue.

"Um, yeah. I, uh, got a boob job."

"I think they look very natural," Rose tried to diffuse the situation.

"You're staying at my parents' house to recover from a boob job?"

"That's why I'm here now, yes."

'Now.' How long had she been here?

"About a year," she answered. Had I thought that last part too loud.

"Why would you want a boob job?"

"I wanted to look like a woman."

"So you lost weight, hacked off your hair, and got a boob job to look like a woman? You already looked like a woman."

Suddenly I was on the floor, my chair flipped over, and Emmett had me by the neck.

"Maybe you should find out the whole story, learn some fucking respect, and then run your mouth. You don't know what the fuck is going on here, but I am more than happy to teach you some respect."

"What the fuck Em?" I yelled back at him.

"Boys, that's enough," my dad called from the end of the table, "Emmett, let your brother up."

"I won't even mention that foul language," my mother pointed out.

When I finally got back to my feet, my burly older brother standing over me, still ready to kick my ass for some reason, Bella was gone.

"Perhaps we should clarify a few things," Alice offered as I righted my chair and sat back down.

"Edward," my father started in his annoying doctor voice. He used that voice to distance himself from his patients, but I wasn't a patient, "I'm only discussing this because Bella has given me permission to. Not long after you last left, a lump was found in Bella's left breast. Further testing showed there was also one in the right. It was biopsied and came back malignant. She was diagnosed with Stage Two Breast Cancer. She opted for a complete Mastectomy instead of cyst removal. It has a better success rate. As a precaution, she did a round of Chemotherapy as well. She didn't tolerate the medication well, and lost about forty pounds in the process, as well as her hair. She responded well to the treatment though, and has been in remission since then. Bella has had four surgical procedures to place and expand tissue expanders in her chest to make room for the implantations so that she could feel like a complete woman again, a choice often made by breast cancer survivors. She had the implantations put in four days ago and is recovering at a remarkable pace."

I sat, stunned. Nobody mentioned this in their emails. Nobody said anything on the drive home from the base. Nobody gave me a heads up. The girl who had been the love of my life could have died, probably came dangerously close to it, and I had no idea.

"And Charlie passed away," Alice said in a soft voice, "Heart attack, the day after you left."

"Why didn't anybody mention any of this to me?" I asked, trying to keep my anger under control. Coming home usually made men ecstatic, but it made me twitchy. Like I had said to my fellow sailors earlier, you just can't trust the people at home.

"Bella planned on telling you tomorrow. She wanted you to have one day to yourself," Rosalie answered, "I had to force her to join us for dinner."

I nodded once, anymore movement and I didn't know if I could contain myself. Perfect stillness and deep breaths.

"I'll go talk to Bella," my mother stood up from the table.

"No," I stopped her, "I'll go."


	5. Chapter 4

Bella was sitting up in bed, propped up on some pillows, reading a book when I finally got the nerve to knock and open her door. I had stood outside of her door trying to get the balls to knock.

I crossed the room silently and sat down on the foot of the bed. We sat in silence for a few minutes. It felt like hours. I noticed her clothes jammed in the opened closet. I could see all of her toiletries spread out across the adjoining bathroom's cabinet. There were a few prescription bottles on the nightstand, books lining every flat surface, and a laptop on the foot of the bed.

"I'm sorry," I whispered, not looking at her.

"You know what I missed the most this past year? What I wanted, needed more than anything?"

I shook my head.

"All I could think about was how horrible it all was, and how everybody kept trying to make me feel safe and comfortable, but the only thing that ever really made me feel safe or comfortable was a hug from you. But then I'd remember what I did to you, and then I knew why it was all happening. It was karma."

"It wasn't karma, it was Biology."

"No, I'm pretty sure it was karma."

"Don't be absurd, Bella."

"I'm sorry I ruined your homecoming."

"I ruined it, not you. And I've never been one for homecomings anyway."

"I know, you'd rather stay on a ship or wherever your plane is."

"Are we going to have this argument again?" I turned to look at her, and noticed the tears in her eyes.

"I'm so sorry," she said, her voice breaking, "I'm sorry for what I did to you. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry about everything."

"Don't be sorry. Life happens. Nobody finds their soulmate upon birth."

"Maybe so."

"Are you in remission? Carlisle said..."

"Yes. For now, anyway. There's a chance it could come back. It's a low chance, but it's still there."

"Why didn't you tell me? You know my email address."

"I didn't want you to be distracted. Carlisle said you were distracted by something when you crashed your plane; I didn't want to maybe cause that again. And I didn't think you'd want to hear from me."

"I still care about you, Bella." _I still love you._

"Are you staying here tonight?"

"Esme insists."

"It's nice to have you home again. You've been gone too long."

I was staring at my ceiling in the dark when I heard my bedroom door opened and feet across my floor.

"Edward, are you asleep?" Bella whispered.

"No, I'm staring at the ceiling."

"You don't have to be a smart ass. Never mind."

"I'm completely serious. I've been on an aircraft carrier for six months, I can't sleep here. It's too still, I'm used to rocking back and forth. There aren't forty other snoring guys in here, and it doesn't smell like ass. I'm not used to it."

"Oh."

"Nightmares?"

When Bella's mom bailed out on her and her dad, Bella spent a great deal of time at our house, even nights, because of Charlie's job as police chief. She had often had nightmares and couldn't sleep, and would climb into my bed at night.

"Yeah," she admitted.

I scooted over in bed and threw the covers back while she climbed in.

"Are you sure?" she asked.

"Yeah. Do you snore now? Maybe then I could sleep."

"I don't think so."

I turned onto my back and Bella snuggled down into my side, facing away from me, just like every other time we'd ever shared a bed. She always said I was always the perfect temperature. Either cool when she was hot, or warm when she was cold.

"Bella..."

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry about Charlie."

"It's okay."

"And I'm sorry I wasn't here for you."

"Me too."

"I'm sorry I was an ass the last time I saw you."

"It was expected."

"Go to sleep."

"You go to sleep."

"I can't."

"Me neither. Tell me a story."

"About what?"

"I don't know. Tell me about the first time you flew off a carrier. I like that one."

"I was fucking terrified. You practice on the ground first, on a mock runway, but if you miss it there's still ground, it's not like you're gonna bail off into the ocean. Six 'okay' runs and you're shipped off to a carrier."

She yawned and shifted a little.

"So I'm sitting in the plane on the flight deck, and I felt the jolt from the catapult latching onto my front landing gear, and I swear I started having a panic attack. Then I hear the countdown in my helmet, and I'm legitimately freaking the fuck out. All of a sudden the catapult shoots me forward, getting me from zero to one-eighty in two hundred fifty feet, and in the midst of me losing my mind I somehow remember to hit my after burners at the end of the runway and then I'm air born. It was the scariest, most wonderful thing I'd ever experienced. Well, until the landing. Landing on a carrier for the first time is definitely the most terrifying thing ever."

She was silent, and her steady, deep breathing meant that she had already drifted off to sleep.

"You know," I whispered to her sleeping form, "When I crashed my plane, I don't remember the actual landing, or the crash itself, I just remember seeing your face."


	6. Chapter 5

"Bella's not in her room," Rosalie looked worried as she burst into the breakfast room where I was eating breakfast with my parents, Alice, and Jasper. Emmett had already threatened my life before heading back south to Ft. Lewis. Rose would be joining him later in the day.

"Maybe she's in the shower," Alice offered.

"No, I checked. I looked everywhere."

"If you didn't find her then you didn't look everywhere," I mumbled.

She narrowed her eyes at me, "The only place I didn't check was _your _bedroom."

I shrugged, "Then you didn't look everywhere."

"Edward," my father put his fork down, "Is Bella in your bedroom?"

"Yeah," I took another bite of the scrambled eggs mom had cooked.

"Why is Bella in your bedroom?" Alice asked.

"She had a nightmare. Couldn't sleep."

"Well that's...interesting," my mother sipped her coffee.

"What's the big deal? She used to do it all the time as kids," I dropped my fork, "Ya'll are acting like I brought some random chick home and fucked her."

"Language, please," my mom shuddered.

"Not at all, son, it's just...nice to see you and Bella getting along, that's all," my father suppressed a grin.

"If Bella spent the night in your room then I DEFINITELY need to check on her," Rosalie growled.

"Good God, Rosalie, get your mind out of the gutter. She just slept in my bed, that's all. Maybe she's still sleeping soundly because ya'll aren't falling all over yourselves to make sure she's still okay. Bella's strong, stronger than any of us. She's probably tired of being treated like an invalid. Maybe that's what she was having nightmares about!"

"You can't blame me for being worried, Edward, you destroy everything you touch."

"You are my brother's wife, nothing more, Rose. Remember that."

"I also happen to be Bella's best friend, you know, the one that picked up the pieces after you got done."

"She left me, don't forget that."

"She asked for time to get her head straight, you're the one that told her not to come back," Rosalie countered.

"Bella had almost two decades to either get on board or get off the train, it's not my fault that damn near eight years later she decided she wasn't sure."

"That's enough!" My mother slammed her mug down onto the table, "Things happen. It's in the past. Edward, this is your brother's wife. Rose, this is your husband's brother. You both could show a little respect. Bella is important to all of us. We are all worried about all of you. You are all damn near thirty, is it not time to grow the hell up already?"

We all looked at mom in shock. Even 'hell' was a foul word to her.

"Now then. _I_ will go check on Bella. The rest of you, find something to do that isn't going to make me want to shove you all back into the uterus you came from just to get a little bit of peace around here," she glared at Rose and I and then left the kitchen.

"Sorry dad," I mumbled along with Rosalie.

He never looked up from his newspaper, "Homecomings are an adjustment for everyone," he said, reaching for another croissant.

BELLA

"Did you sleep well?" Esme asked when she came into Edward's bedroom and found me sitting up in bed.

"Yes, actually. Better than I have in a while."

"Edward said you had a nightmare."

"Yeah, they come and go. I'm sorry that I came in here last night."

"Nonsense, Edward has always been the only one to help you sleep after one of your particular nightmares. I remember your mother calling in the middle of the night to have one of us drive Edward over. Later on, even Charlie would call from time to time. You two have a special connection that the rest of us just don't always understand."

"We used to."

"Honey, you're sleeping in Edward's bed. I'd say it's still there."

I couldn't help but smirk, "Don't get your hopes up Esme, I can see the wheels in your head spinning."

"Nonetheless, you may want to get dressed. Breakfast is getting cold and I'm sure Rose and Edward are trying to kill each other over the breakfast table right now."

I groaned, "Again? Will they ever stop fighting?"

"I think it's just a way of life now," she rolled her eyes, "Ah, it was so nice having all of my children home for a night. Emmett already left, he could only get the one day off, but at least we got that."

"You know if you keep referring to all of us as your children people are gonna start thinking we're incestuous."

"Nonsense! I don't care what womb you came from, you are all my children. I have cared for and loved you all as my own."

"That you have. Have I ever told you how much I appreciate you?"

"Yes, but one can't ever hear it too often," she joked, "Now, get dressed before Edward and Jasper eat everything in the kitchen."

As soon as I sat down at the breakfast table, Rose shoved a plate full of eggs, croissants, and turkey bacon in front of me.

"What is that?" Edward scrunched his nose in confusion.

"Breakfast," Rose snapped.

"Bella eats fruit for breakfast, and a protein shake. That's it."

"She needs a more balanced meal so she can get healthy again," Rose argued.

"She's not unhealthy, she's just thing. Protein and exercise will fix that quicker than scrambled eggs and croissants."

"Bella loves this breakfast."

"When was the last time you asked Bella what she wanted for breakfast?" Edward countered.

Rose didn't answer.

"Bella, what do you want for breakfast?" he asked me.

"This is fine," I pointed at the plate.

"I didn't ask if that was fine, I asked what you wanted for breakfast."

I swallowed, caught between a rock and a hard place.

"It's fine Bella, you can have fruit," Rose snatched the plate away and quickly replaced it with a bowl of chopped fruit.

Edward looked satisfied with himself.

"Thank you, Rose. You're too good to me."

"Bella," Edward sat back in his chair, "I was thinking of going out later. Care to join me?"

"Oh Edward," Alice finally spoke up, "I don't think Bella's up for outings. She just had surgery a few days ago."

"And her immune system is probably still compromised," Rose added.

"Dad?"

"Oh, son, please don't drag me into this one," Carlisle put his newspaper down and looked at Edward.

"In your professional opinion, since you are a doctor and have overseen all of Bella's medical issues as of late, do you think Bella is capable of going out for a little while, medically speaking?"

Carlisle sighed, hating to ever get into an argument between his children, "Medically speaking, Bella is perfectly fine to go out of the house, assuming she's not doing anything strenuous. She does still have stitches, and she may tire more easily than normal."

"There you go," Edward looked from Alice to Rose, then back to Bella, "So?"

"Out where?" I asked.

He shrugged, "Wherever. I haven't been around here in a while. Judging from your security team here," he pointed at Rose and Alice, "I'd say you haven't either."

"I'll go with you."

"Good. We'll leave after breakfast."


	7. Chapter 6

EDWARD

"Are you happy to be home?" Bella asked as we sat on the sand in the shadows of West Point Lighthouse in Seattle. We had spent the morning walking around downtown Seattle, had lunch at a little burger joint, Zesto's, that we both loved, and were now watching the waves of Puget Sound wash up on the small beach.

"Yeah, a little. I mean, it's always good to see the family, as dysfunctional as we may be. Six months on a ship and you start to go a little stir crazy. Get tired of looking at each other."

"But you're not flying right now."

"Not for another couple of weeks, no."

"You're miserable if you're not in the air."

"I'd be miserable if I wasn't in the air and knew I never would be again. Being on the ground isn't so bad if you have something on the ground to look forward to."

"What are you looking forward to?"

"I don't know, honestly, but I don't feel half empty like I usually do. Are you happy that I'm home?"

"Yes. I worry about you when you were gone."

"I should've been here for you."

"I'm actually glad that you weren't. I couldn't stand to look at myself so I'm sure you wouldn't have liked it much. Everybody was very accommodating, taking care of me, but I could see the fear in their eyes, the pity. It was almost worse than the disease."

"I probably wouldn't have been much good for you. I would've just made it worse. Maybe Rose is right. Maybe I do ruin everything I touch."

"That's so untrue it's ridiculous."

"I don't know that I could have handled seeing you so fragile. It's not what I'm used to."

"Me neither."

"I've missed you, Bella."

"I missed you too," she let silence sweep over us for a few minutes, "Do you ever..."

"Do I ever what?" I ask when she trails off.

"Nothing. I don't remember what I was going to say."

"You've always been a horrific liar."

"I'm a fabulous liar," she laughed.

"Whatever. Anyway, the answer to your question is yes."

"You don't even know what my question was."

"Yeah I do. I know you better than I know myself, Bella."

She looked out at the water and just nodded. I saw the goosebumps pop up on her arm and slid out of my jacket, draping it over her shoulders.

"You're always taking care of me."

"I don't mind."

"You're the only one that doesn't treat me like I'm about to break."

"If I had been here through the whole ordeal, I might be even worse than the others."

"They saw me at my absolute worse. Physically, mentally. They're just worried."

"I know."

"I'm still struggling with a few things. They know that. They're protective."

"What are you struggling with? You said you were in remission?"

"Nothing. It's embarrassing."

"You can tell me anything, Bella, you always have."

"It's just a really shallow thing to be upset about. I mean, I got the implants so I could be normal. Ya know? But it's not exactly normal. It doesn't look anything like they used to, and there's some scaring. What if somebody sees it and is disgusted by me?"

I shook at the thought of someone seeing Bella naked. Nobody needed to see her naked, especially not some horny guy trying to get touchy.

"I hope you never get over that. Nobody needs to see you naked," I growled.

"You're right."

"No, that didn't come out right. I mean that as far as I know, and please do not correct me if I'm wrong, for the safety and personal well being of whoever it may have been, but as far as I know only I and a few select medical professionals have ever seen you naked, and probably Rose, Alice, and Mom. I'd rather it stayed that way."

"How greatly overprotective of you, but trust me, even you don't want to see you naked."

"Don't be ridiculous, Bella, I spent my whole life trying to get you naked. Some things don't change. Not that I'm trying now, but I certainly would not turn down the opportunity."

"But you hate me now."

"I never said that."

"You told me not to come back."

"I was hurt. Angry, really angry for a while. I was still trying to sort through the crash, too. I shouldn't have said that. I just... I couldn't handle that I felt like I was dying inside and you seemed perfectly fine."

"Do you really think it wasn't hard for me too? I thought I didn't know what I wanted, after I had promised you everything. I was hurt and angry with myself. Probably more than you were."

I shrugged, "I never thought about it. I just... assumed you'd found someone else and nobody was saying it."

She let out a deep breath, "Edward, even now, there has never been anyone else. Not even a coffee date. Hell, I never even gave my number out. I just needed to sort through my mind for a while."

I nodded, "You about done with that?"

"With what?"

"Sorting through your mind."

"Yes, I am."

"So you've got it all figured out now, and you know exactly what it is that you want?"

"Yes."

"Okay."

"Are you asking me to tell you what all of that is?"

"No. I figure I'll figure it out eventually."

"Oh, okay."

"You ready to head back? We've been gone all day. I bet Rose is climbing the walls."

"Yeah. She's leaving tonight to go back to Ft. Lewis. I should see her before she leaves."

"I probably should see the she-devil too."

"She's not so bad."

"Oh I like having Rose around. It'd be so much more boring if we didn't have her. I find her highly entertaining."

"You just like to get her all riled up."

"It's just so easy to do."

"Uh huh. Come on, lets go. Traffic's going to be a nightmare."

I motioned towards the car, "After you."


	8. Chapter 7

Edward

I was rubbing the sleep out of my eyes a week later as I barged into the bedroom that adjoined Bella's bedroom. It was one of those jack and jill bathrooms with two entrances. I walked right in before hearing an ear piercing shriek. If I wasn't awake before, I certainly was then.

"Edward! GET OUT!" Bella shrieked.

I finally opened my eyes opened all the way, barely awake, and saw her standing in front of me wearing nothing but a pair of black boy cut panties, her arms around her chest.

"Shhhh..." I managed, "Too early for screaming."

"GET OUT! You can't see me naked!"

"Why not? I've seen it before. I have to pee, you get out."

"There are like, five other bathrooms in this house, you need to use this one?"

"It's closest."

"Get OUT!"

"Why are you freaking out? I've seen you naked."

"Not like this, only me and a medical professional has. Remember, we had this conversation at the beach? About how disfigured and ugly I am now? Please, just get out. Just let me get dressed."

I cocked my head to the side and really looked at her. She looked terrified.

"Are you scared of me?"

"No, I'm scared of your reaction."

"Bella, you're beautiful."

"No, it's really anything but beautiful."

"Who can you trust if you can't trust me? I was there when you got your first period. I even went with you to many gynecological appointments, if I recall."

"That was before."

I reached out and touched her shoulder, "Close your eyes."

"I'm not playing with you right now. We've been getting along so great for the last week, please just walk away from this one."

"Do you trust me?"

"Yeah, but..."

"No, close your eyes."

After a long, huffy pause, she did.

"Now, pretend that I've left the room."

"But you haven't."

"That's why I said 'pretend.'"

"Fine."

"Drop your arms."

"I can't."

"Yes you can. Drop your arms."

"Please don't make me do this."

"I'm not making you do anything. As scared as you are of what my reaction might be, you're just as curious to find out. Drop your arms."

"You won't ever be able to look at me again."

"Bella, I'm covered in scars, too, and you still look at me."

She sighed in defeat, "Just, be silent about it. At least then I can pretend you weren't horrified," and then, she dropped her arms.

Her breasts looked fine. Symmetrical. Natural. The nipples were fine, though created, I knew. There was some scaring under the curve of her breasts where they'd put the implants in, and some minor scarring over them as a whole, from the original surgery, but they looked wonderful. Nothing near what she was making it out to be.

"So?"

"Bella, have you looked at them? They look great."

"Really?" She raised one eyebrow, but didn't open her eyes.

"I swear, they look really fucking great. You know what? I'm not sure. I think I should touch them just to make sure."

"Don't push your luck, Edward."

"Can't blame a guy for trying."

She wrapped her arms back around her chest and looked up at me, "How many girls have you slept with since we broke up?"

"That's kind of out of left field."

"You're avoiding the question."

"I'm not avoiding the question, I'm trying to figure out why you're asking me that."

"Because I want to know."

"You do realize that you technically left me, right?"

"How many?"

"None."

"No, really."

"Really, none," I shrugged, "Wasn't interested."

"Swear it."

"I swear."

"Okay."

"What was that about?"

"I was just curious."

I stared at her for a few moments, trying to figure out her angle, "You're acting kind of twitchy, Swan."

She shrugged, "Oh well. Now get out so I can get dressed."

"But I still have to pee."

"Fine, I'll get out. Don't come in my room when I'm done trying to catch me naked again."

"I didn't do it on purpose the first time!"

"Whatever, Edward. You've spent your whole life trying to get me naked."

I watched her walk out of the bathroom, "That is very true."

"Where's Bella?" I asked my mother, finding her in the kitchen and the rest of the house empty.

"Meeting with her literary agent. Her second book is due today."

"I think she mentioned that."

"You two have been getting along well."

"I guess we have. Kind of feels like old times, minus the whole making out all the time and trying not to get her pregnant."

"I hope that means you're not sleeping together and not that you're trying to get her pregnant. Also, son, while I'm glad you feel comfortable enough to tell me anything, you can certainly save some of it for your father."

I laughed, "Aw, but mom, Dad doesn't turn nearly as red as you do!"

"I want to talk about you and Bella."

"But there's no 'me and Bella,' there's me, over here, and then over there, there's Bella, but we're not together."

"Not yet."

"Quit scheming. We're getting along well. We've talked out a lot of things. Just let whatever happens happen naturally."

"When are you going back to base?"

I shrugged, "No flight operations for a couple of weeks."

"And how long will you be in port?"

"A few months, probably, unless something comes up. I should be on the Lincoln for eighteen more months, so as long as they're in port, I'll be here."

"I like having you home."

"I actually like being home this time. I'm not dying to get back to my plane like usual."

"Hmm... I wonder why that is?"

"Quit scheming!"

"I'm not scheming, but I have noticed that Bella hasn't slept in her own bed since you got here."

"She sleeps better with me. I sleep better with her. It works. No sense messing with what works."

"Bella has come out of her shell since you've gotten home."

"Maybe because I'm the only one that doesn't treat her like she's going to drop dead at any moment."

"Edward, you weren't here, you don't know how bad she was. She was very weak for a long time."

"I wasn't here because nobody told me. Lets not forget that I was deliberately kept out of the loop."

"For your own good."

"Doesn't matter, every email you sent me that said, 'everybody's fine,' was a lie."

"You said you didn't want to hear about Bella."

"I'm sure you know that I wanted to know she was okay."

"You didn't specify."

"Okay, well, she's fine now, I'm back, everybody's happy. Except for Rose, but she's never happy."

"Leave Rose alone. Will you two ever get along?"

"Ummm... no, probably not."

"Edward, what is it about the airplanes? What has you so addicted?"

"Mom, you know how when somebody is really, really happy they say, 'I felt like I was flying?"'

"Of course."

"Well, there's a reason for that."

BELLA

"And here's your check," Angela, my agent, hands me a cashier's check.

"That's a lot of zeroes."

"This book is highly anticipated."

"That's good to know."

"I'm glad you're back, Bella. We were all pulling for you."

"Thank you, Angela."

"So what now? Are you going to stay with your Cullens?"

"I think I'll go out on my own again. I miss being on my own."

"Back to Seattle?"

"I'm not sure."

"Oh, you've gone and gotten attached to Bellevue, haven't you?"

"Actually, I was thinking about Everett."

"Everett? There's nothing there but a Naval base."

I nodded, "Yes, I know."

"Honey, you do what you want to do. We support you," Esme assured me after I told her and Carlisle that I was going to start looking at apartments.

"I appreciate everything so much."

"Of course, Bella," Carlisle hugged me quickly, "You need to get your life back."

"I'm not crying because you're moving out, although I will miss you. I like having you here," Esme wiped under eyes with a napkin, "It's just that with you gone, we won't see Edward near as much."

"What's that got to do with me?" I asked.

"Well, he'll be wherever you are."

"Esme, we're not together."

"Maybe not, but you're very attached to each other," she argued.

"Tell you what, I'll make him come home as often as I can, okay?"

Esme nodded and wiped at her eyes again.

"Where is Edward? It's too quiet. Shouldn't something be blaring or banging or something?" I joked, trying to lighten the mood.

"He's reading a book in my study," Carlisle smirked.

"Edward's reading a book? I didn't think he'd ever read anything besides a flight manual."

"Go see for yourself."

I found him in Carlisle's study, with my book in his hand.

"Hey, that's mine," I teased.

"This is based on us," he said, turning the page.

"I never said that."

"I'm not stupid. I can read."

I shrugged, "Hypothetically speaking, if I did base it on us, and I'm not saying that I did, it was a good story to base it off of."

"It was. Come sit," he sat up from his laying position and patted the cushion beside him.

I sat down, "What?"

He put the book down on the end table, "I've been thinking."

"Oh hell..."

"Shut up," he laughed, "What if I said that I wanted to give us another shot?"

"Yes, what if?"

"Would you do it?"

"I don't know."

"Oh...why not?"

"Because I don't know if I could go back to square one."

"I don't know if I could count on you to not bail out again."

"Touche, but I was thinking about looking at apartments in Everett."

"Why? There's nothing there but the base."

I shrugged.

"Ahhh, okay. I'll go with you. I need an apartment too."

"Um, alright."

"How about this," he pulled a quarter out of his pocket, "We'll flip for it."

"For an apartment."

He rolled his eyes, "Heads we give it another shot, tails we don't."

"Okay."

He flipped the coin, caught it, flipped it onto the back of his hand, and then we looked.

"Tails..."

"Yeah," I agreed.

We just stared at it for a few seconds without saying anything.

"Best two out of three?" he looked at me.

"Yeah, flip it again."


	9. Chapter 8

EDWARD

The drive from the base in Everett down to Bellevue was killer, especially in the evenings when rush hour had hit. I had yet to make it in less than an hour and a half, just to go about 40 miles.

When I got home the house was quiet. Too quiet. I found my mother out in her vegetable garden.

"Where is everybody? I thought Rose was coming up?"

"Oh, Edward, you're home. Yes, Rose and Bella decided to have a girl's night. They picked up Alice on their way to Seattle. Your father is working a double shift at the hospital. I was told not to worry about the girls. They're going to get a hotel room so they aren't drinking and driving."

"How was Rose?"

"You're concerned about Rose?" she raised an eyebrow at me, and I could only shrug in response.

Emmett had left out on deployment two weeks ago for a year in Iraq... again. While Rose was the most independent woman I had ever known, the first few weeks were always hard for her. It were as if she and Emmett were two parts of the same person, and she had lost half of herself.

"She seems to be doing well. I think she's keeping busy to keep her mind off of it. Emmett will be fine. He's very well trained."

I nodded. I didn't have the heart to tell her that everyone was very well trained, but that didn't stop people from dying. It's weird, the way that works for military members. In the back of your mind, there's always that fear, but we never say it out loud. That would make it too real. It didn't matter how many times we saw someone else die, we never fully admitted that it could happen to us.

"Emmett's fine," I said, but underneath the surface, I was just as worried and fearful for my older brother as everyone else. My job was dangerous enough, and I was just flying over the mess. Emmett was right in the middle of it, on the ground.

"The girls will be back sometime tomorrow. I think they all need this. Rose with Emmett leaving, Bella with... everything, and Alice, well, she always keeps the other two cheered up."

"I think I'm gonna take a shower and head to bed, Mom. I'm beat."

"Do you want something to eat? I can make you something."

"Nah, I ate some crap on the ship."

She frowned and muttered something about putting her baby at risk, they could at least feed him well.

BELLA

"I don't know about this," I frowned at the golden liquid in the shot glass.

"I haven't drank in two years," Rose yelled over the music, "And with everything you've been through I figure we'll both be fucked up by nine thirty," she shrugged, "Fuck it," she downed the Tequila and I followed her lead, along with Alice.

"I'm going dance on that table, are you bitches coming with me?" Rose demanded.

"I'm not sure about..."

Before Alice could finish her sentence Rose had grabbed us by the wrists and we were on a table. Alice looked at me and I shrugged before moving along with the music. Rose was hiding the fact that she was falling apart inside, and if downing shots of Tequila and dancing on tables was what would make her feel better, even if only for a night, who were we to stop her?

Alice nodded, as if understanding my thoughts, and started dancing on the other side of Rose.

I sat on the nasty little bench with my back against the bars of the small cell. Rose was passed out on the disgusting cot across the small space, and Alice was next to me, looking terrified.

"Mom and Dad are going to kill us," she whispered, "I can't call Jasper, he's out of town."

"Forget about Esme and Carlisle, I have to deal with Edward."

"I thought you two weren't together?"

"We've just been talking things out for the last month, and I don't know what's going to happen, but still, I have to deal with Edward."

"What do you want to happen?" she looked hopeful.

"Alice, we're in jail, now is not the time to talk about the cluster fuck that is my love life."

"When Rose wakes up, I'm kicking her ass. I can't believe she accosted a police officer."

"I can't believe she thought he was a cop. He'd just gotten out of his patrol car with his partner. She must be really drunk."

"Bella, I'm sitting in jail for Public Intoxication and Disturbing the Peace, as are you, I don't care what Rose's issues are, I'm kicking her ass."

"True, but Rose has Assaulting an Officer too, so maybe she's got it hard enough?"

"Ugh, anyway," Alice waved her hands as if to wave away the thoughts, "Who are we gonna call?"

I sighed in defeat, "I guess I'll have to call Edward. Carlisle is working at the hospital tonight and can't come, and Esme will just worry all the way here."

"You do it."

"What? Why do I have to do it? He's your brother!"

"Yeah but he loves you."

"Fine!"

"Miss Swan," an officer opens the gate to the cell, "You ready to make that phonecall?"

"Certainly not," I growled, "but I'm ready to get out of here, so lets get this over with."

"Hello?"

Edward's voice was groggy. Of course he'd been sleeping, it was four in the morning.

"Edward, it's Bella."

"Bella, are you okay? It's really late."

"Or really early, depending on how you look at it."

"Are you drunk?"

"Not anymore, getting thrown in jail tends to sober a person up in record time."

"WHAT?" he yelled.

"Yeah, about that. Can you come get us?"

"You're in JAIL?"

"I'll explain later, just please come get us. They're releasing us without bail."

"Bail? What the fuck did you do?"

"I'll explain later, I just need you to stay calm. Rose is... not doing as well as we had thought, and had a little too much to drink, and, really it's just a huge misunderstanding."

"I'll be there in twenty minutes."

"Edward, don't be ridiculous, you can't make it here in twenty minutes."

"TWENTY MINUTES!" he yelled into the phone before hanging up.

I hung up the phone and turned to face Alice, who was still sitting in the cell with Rose, "So, he's pissed?"

"Umm... yeah, you could say that."

When we got home, Edward helped me get and Alice get Rose inside and to Emmett's childhood bedroom. After getting her into bed, Alice disappeared down the hall to Jasper's childhood bedroom, leaving Edward and I into the hallway.

"You can yell at me. I'll even go somewhere with you so you don't wake Esme up with the yelling," I offered.

He shook his head slowly.

"I know we messed up, it's just that..."

"Don't," he held his hand up as if to stop my words, "When I picked Rose up from out of the backseat to carry her in, she curled up into me like a baby, hugged my neck, and murmured, 'Emmett, you're home...'"

I watched him as he ran his hands through his hair, a nervous, frustrated habit. Sometimes I feared he would yank his hair right out of his head.

"She's broken, isn't she? Is it always like this when he leaves?"

"Yes," I answered carefully, unsure of where the conversation was heading. While being thrown in jail had sobered me up almost immediately, I was exhausted as it was nearing six in the morning, "It's like half of her is missing. She has a hard time adjusting when he's gone. He's her other half, and he's out there being shot at, and everyday on the news somebody is getting blown up by an IED or whatever. She'll be terrified until he's back home."

He nodded, taking a few moments to think my answer over, "Is it like that for you? When we were together and I left, were you like that? Like Rose?"

"Umm..." He had never asked me that before. I had never volunteered the information. I always thought it were better that he not know, "Not quite to that degree. I mean, you're not in the middle of it, really, you're over it, but there's always that fear that you'll go down. They can shoot things up at you. You could, I don't know, run out of fuel, or... crash on the carrier... which you did, once. But I wasn't, like, unable to really function..."

"She's lying," Alice's voice came out of the darkness behind Edward, and he snapped around to face her, "Bella is lying. Even when you weren't together, I'd give her three days. Three days to lay in bed and feel hopeless. Three days to wallow in her despair and be convinced that she'd never see you again, then I'd go drag her out and make her get back to her life. We had to block all of the news stations so she wouldn't see the reports on the war. Jasper would take her radio out of her truck so she wouldn't hear anything, because any report on the war, good or bad, would send her spiraling back down. She'd sleep in your t-shirts. When it got really bad she'd come here and sleep in your bed, even when you weren't together. Being your girlfriend, fiance, whatever, or not didn't matter, her response to the deployments never changed. And as soon as you were back on the ground here, she'd finally take her first deep breath in months, and everything would be fine again. As soon as you'd leave, it would all start over."

I glared at Alice, silently thinking of all the ways I could beat her little pixie ass. She was quick and nimble, but I was a bit bigger. I could take her.

"I'm sorry Bella, but at least tell him the truth. Maybe if enough of the truth was told here, you to him, him to you, we could get past all this angst and heart clench and move the fuck on," she turned quickly and went back to her room, leaving us in the hallway as the sun came up somewhere.

"I didn't know it was like that. I knew you hated it, that I would leave, but you were always happy when I called. Your emails were always happy. I didn't know that it was so hard on you. I'm... I'm sorry, Bella."

Feeling helpless, I reached out to hug him, but as soon as I got close, Rose started screaming.

He jerked away from me, his head snapping to the door that she was behind, "It's just a nightmare," I said, slowly stepping around him to get to Rose, "She's dreaming that Emmett is dying."

"Did you..."

"Sometimes," I admitted, "Do you want to help me with her?"

"I..." he started taking steps backwards, away from me, "I'm sorry, I can't. I just, I can't..."

I watched him run down the stairs and a few seconds later, I heard the front door open and shut, followed by the engine of his car starting and speeding away.

"I'll help you," Alice was suddenly beside me, "I'm sorry, but he needed to know how it really is. He lives in a fantasy world. You live in the world of negativity. You both need professional help, I'm just saying."

Rose suddenly screamed again, "Focus on the task at hand," I said, pushing the bedroom door opened.

Without another word, we climbed in on either side of Rose and curled up to her. Alice held onto her in a tight hug while I gently pushed her hair from her face and started whispering in her ear the things that we'd learned over the years would bring her out of it.

"It's okay Rose, Emmett is fine. Wake up, Rose, Emmett is alive and well. You can do this Rose, if anybody can do this, it's you..."


	10. Chapter 9

EDWARD

After I left my parents' house after picking the girls up from jail, which I still wasn't happy about, I went back to the ship, where I stayed for a full week, just trying to sort through everything.

I had gotten a few texts from Bella asking if I was okay. Ironically enough, I asked her for some time to figure things out. Funny, since when she had asked me for time to figure things out, I'd lost my mind and all of a sudden there wasn't a me and Bella anymore.

* * *

><p>I walked into my parents house as the sun was setting. My parents were out for the evening, some benefit for the hospital. Rose was back at Ft Lewis, working, keeping her mind busy with something other than fear, and Jasper had just gotten back into town so he and Alice were, ahem, busy.<p>

Bella was sitting in my dad's office, tapping away at the computer.

"Busy?"

She jumped, "Oh! You scared me. I didn't hear you come in. I didn't expect you."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. Busy?"

"No, just..." she hit a few buttons then sat back in the office chair, "Done. Just sending over the final copy of my next book."

"I finally finished reading your last book. It was based on us, wasn't it?"

"That seems to be the big mystery surrounding it. Everyone wants to know," she smirked, "but in a sense, yes, it was."

"We didn't end up together."

"Not every book has to be a happily ever after."

I nodded, "I'm not getting out of the Navy, not until I hit my twenty years. I'm eight years in."

"I know that."

"I love you, Bella, since the day we were born, I've loved you. I never stopped, and I never will."

"Edward..."

"No, let me finish. I'm not getting out of the Navy. There will be more deployments. There will be more separations. I can't promise that nothing will never happen to me. I can't promise that I won't get shot at, or shot down. I can't promise that I won't ever crash again. I can promise that I try my hardest not to. My last deployment was supposed to be for 4 months, it turned into a full year. I have no control over that. My job is not to question the war, or to disagree with my superiors, or to get out of deployments, or to find a way to quit in the middle of my obligated time, which I have volunteered for. My job is to follow orders, and as long as they keep me in the air, I'm okay with that."

"I know that, too."

"I want to be with you. I want to put that ring back onto your finger. I want to marry you. I want to have babies and do everything that you're supposed to do, but I won't always be there. My captain has missed all but one birthday for his daughter, and she's nine. Most of my guys have missed first steps, first words, hell, even birth. They've missed their wive's surgeries, miscarriages, and anniversaries. They live life through pictures and videos. We all do. Emails from back home, packages, they're what keep us going."

He took a deep breath, "I'm not always going to be here. I'm going to be in harm's way, but Bella, when I'm up there, I'm never scared. I know what I'm doing. I've never been so confident in anything about myself like I am in that plane, and my guys have got my back, and I've got theirs. I've seen seasoned pilots that have seen it all cry while watching a video of their child's birth, when the child is six months old because the mail system is shit. They've seen me lose my shit. They're my brothers, just as much as Emmett is. I'm fine when I'm gone. I'm okay. I'm going to make it back home. I know all of that. I'm safer than Emmett ever is, much safer. I know that. I KNOW it. What I don't know when I'm gone, is if you're okay. If you're safe. If you're going to be here when I get back home. I don't know any of that."

"I make it through."

"Yeah, but at what cost?"

"I don't know any of that about you, either. You don't tell me anything when you're gone. You keep it light and happy so I don't freak out, which only makes me freak out even more. I don't know that you're safe, okay, or if you're coming back. I'm not in the Navy, I don't know how it works. All I know is that I'm here, you're there, and you're flying over waiting for someone to engage you so you can have your glory days."

"If I told you everything, would it be easier?"

"I think it would."

"Could you deal with it for twelve more years?"

"What wouldn't I do for you? What haven't I done? Edward, if I have to deal with this for twelve more years, then I will."

"Moving to a new place every two years, give or take a few months? As soon as you get settled and make friends, it's time to go again."

"I'd handle it."

"And if we ever had kids? Could you do it alone?"

"With our family, I'd never be alone. You know damn good and well that Esme, Rose, and Alice would fly down in shifts to be with that baby. Assuming we ever had one, which I'm not entirely sold on that."

"I've been talking to the guys, and I think they're entirely right. We all need a good, strong, trustworthy, loving, independent woman back home, holding down the fort. I think you could handle that. I don't know if you think you could."

"Listen to me, Edward, I've got this. I'm not the same little naive girl that you had last time. I've been through a lot, I've learned a lot. You almost died. I almost died. It makes you realize what's important."

"I want you with me. I want to be with you. Forever, everyday. I want you to marry me."

"I will."

I pulled the ring out of my pocket, the simple solitaire that I'd given her all those years before, "I know it's weird, since we've been broken up for so long, but..."

She held her hand out for me to slip the ring on, "Nothing has ever felt so right before."

* * *

><p>BELLA<p>

It was all a blur. Hands running over skin, mouths meeting places that hadn't been touched in forever. There was no awkwardness, it was all exactly the way it should be.

Edward brushing the hair from my face, my nails gently scratching down his back. Our bodies coming together and fitting perfectly, as if they were made for each other. It was slow, and intense, and emotional, and so, so, love-filled.

"Somebody had a good night, I see," Carlisle smirked when he came into the kitchen the next morning. I didn't realize that while Edward and I sat across from each other at the eat-in bar, we were both lost in our own thoughts.

Esme hummed, then said, "I see you guys have finally worked it all out. So, when is the date?" she nodded towards the ring on my finger.

"We hadn't really discussed it," I admitted.

"I'd like it to be soon. Simple. Extravagant, whatever you want, just soon," Edward smiled down at me.

"We could do it here," I offered, "Esme has a beautiful back lawn."

"Perfect. Tuxes?"

"No, I don't think so. Uniform?"

"Of course. Dress?"

"Absolutely," Esme interjected.

"I wish Emmett could be here," I sighed.

"We'll send him the video. He'll understand," Edward took my hand in his.

"Alice and Rose will stand with me. Jasper with you?"

"Definitely. I'll just have Jas, and leave a space up there for Emmett."

"I think that sounds perfect," Carlisle beamed proudly at us, his children, all grown up, "Woman, what are you doing?" He asked as Esme picked up the cordless phone, "We have a wedding to plan, I'm calling Rose and Alice."

"Small," I said firmly, "Family only. Just us. Small and intimate."

"And a date?" Esme asked hopefully.

"How about next Saturday?" Edward asked me.

"Can you have it all planned by next Saturday?" I asked, knowing it was only eight days away.

"Absolutely," Esme responded, immediately dialing the girls.


	11. Chapter 10

EDWARD

The gazebo in my parents backyard had been covered in white Calla Lillies and red Stargaizers, with a red aisle runner stretching from the gazebo to the back porch. Candles were everywhere, creating a romantic, intimate feeling.

My dad was in his black suit, with Esme beside him in a red dress that hit just below the knee. Jasper stood next to me, with a space left between us for Emmett, in a black suit, while I stood tall in my dress whites.

Alice and Rose were on the other side of the aisle from me in black dresses, halter tops, that hit just above the knee.

And then there was Bella, gorgeous Bella, in a wedding dress unlike any I'd seen before. It was strapless with a sweetheart neckline, and the bottom flared out like a trumpet. It was covered in what Alice had taught me was roucheing, and I'd never seen a more beautiful bride.

We exchanged vows, and I swear, every single one of us was either crying, or almost crying.

Dinner was heavenly, and champagne flowed. We danced in my parents' living room, and made sure every second was caught on video.

And then, even though we were adamant that gifts were completely unnecessary, my parents presented us with a set of house keys.

"I had bought a house in Everett a few years ago and completely remodeled it," my mother explained, "It's small, but a perfect starter home, and until you have to move again, it's yours. I won't take anything but 'thank you, mom, you're amazing,' as an answer," she beamed, "I've already furnished and decorated it to your tastes.

As the night drew to a close and early morning was approaching, Bella and I got into my car, with most of her belongings in the trunk, and made our way up to Everett. Made our way home.

* * *

><p>We fell into married life easily. Mom had set up an office for Bella in the second bedroom, there were only two bedrooms and two bathrooms, a living room, kitchen, and dining room. It had a small yard in back, and an even smaller yard in front. It sat on Marine View Drive, with a perfect view of the base and the sound beyond it.<p>

I went to work before Bella was up, and tried to return home in time for dinner, though I didn't always make it. Bella was in the office all day, writing, and then in the kitchen, cooking up something. Some days she worked in the yard, planting things, moving things, etc.

When we hit our first month anniversary, Bella was scaring the hell out of me. She was always sick. Throwing up in the bathroom, the kitchen sink, the yard, even down the side of my car once as she flung herself through the window.

"I think you should see a doctor," I said one night as we climbed into bed, "Maybe it's the..." I stopped, unable to finish that sentence.

"The cancer isn't back, Edward. I don't need a doctor to tell me I'm pregnant," She laid down beside me, staring up at the ceiling.

"Pregnant?" It seemed like such a foreign concept to me. Bella had been told that the chemo would damage her reproductive system, and that she may never have children. It wasn't impossible, but it was unlikely.

"Yeah, pregnant. At least, seven home tests have told me so."

"You're pregnant?"

She huffed, "Yes."

"So you're gonna have a baby? We're gonna have a baby? I'm gonna be a daddy?"

"That's usually how this works," she laughed.

I jumped up on the bed and bounced up and down, "We're having a fucking baby!"

"Edward! Get down," she laughed as I scooped her into my arms and continued jumping up and down.

"I'm gonna be a daddy!"

* * *

><p>EDWARD<p>

If you've never gone along to the OB/GYN with a pregnant woman before, I don't really recommend it. It's terrifying.

First they took what I could only assume was half of Bella's blood volume for 'routine testing.' When they had her up on this table, spread eagle, and shoved some stuff up there, before the doctor, Siobhan, as she insisted we call her, shoved her hand in there.

It was fucking awkward.

Then Siobhan brought out this giant wand, covered it in a condom, no kidding, and shoved that up Bella.

And then... then... a little peanut looking thing popped up on the screen, with a little flicker in the middle.

"That's the baby's heartbeat," Siobhan smiled as Bella cried, and I just looked on in amazement, "And this..." she maneuvered the wand around and another peanut popped up, "Is the other baby's heartbeat."

"Whoa, hold up," I suddenly couldn't thing straight, "Isn't that the same one?"

"No, there are two. Twins. I'll need to see Bella every week for the duration of her pregnancy. With her history, I just want to stay on the safe side."

"I can't have two babies," Bella sat up halfway, "I don't even know what to do with one."

"You'll be fine. Now, our goal for now is to get you to twelve weeks, the end of your first trimester. That's when the risk of miscarriage drops considerably. I don't necessarily think you're at risk, but with your history of chemotherapy, we cannot be too safe. Try to minimize stress, take it easy. Let yourself rest, eat well."

"You think she'll be okay, though? The babies?"

"I have no reason to think otherwise," Siobhan smiled, "Most likely, everything will be fine. Will you be delivering here at Swedish Hospital, or will you be going on to Bremerton Naval Hospital?"

"Oh no, here, definitely," I was adamant, "It's bad enough I gotta drive 45 miles to get her here when she goes into labor, I'm not driving 45 miles and then taking an hour ferry. Not happening."

"Then I'll see you in seven days," Siobhan smiled and left the room so Bella could get dressed.

"Two babies," Bella looked up at me, "Twice as much stuff."

"The family is going to flip," I nodded, "But I love you. Are you still sure?"

I'd been asking her everyday if she was still sure she wanted to be married to me. Especially since orders had come through and I was being sent to San Diego, to the USS Nimitz, in six months, and Bella would have to move with me, leaving our family back in Seattle.

"Two babies on my own from time to time. I'll figure it out," she smiled up at me, "I gotta say it, Edward, when you do something, you REALLY do it, don't you?"

I laughed, "Yeah, well, go big or go home."

* * *

><p>BELLA<p>

When the excited screaming and tears of joy were over with, Esme got right to work on finding us a house in San Diego, though Edward and I were adamant that we'd buy it this time. With my dad's insurance money and pension, not to mention my book deals, I was more than comfortable. Especially when you factor in Edward's officer pay, and the trust funds that Carlisle had set up for each of us as soon as came into the family, whichever way that may have been.

Rose decided that when it came time for Edward to deploy again, and we still didn't know when that may be, she'd be quitting her job and coming to stay with me as long as Emmett was gone. Esme would be flying down as often as possible, as well as Alice and Jasper.

Everyone immediately began kicking around names and nursery ideas, though we wouldn't know the gender for quite a while.

Edward became even more protective, if you could imagine. He didn't want me doing anything but laying in bed until we hit that twelve week mark, for obvious reasons, but I still moved around the house while he was at work, or else I would've gone stir crazy.

I got to meet all of Edward's fellow pilots as well. They all came to the house for a big BBQ Edward had thrown in celebration of his impending fatherhood. I was impressed to see that, just as Edward had described, they were a family. A big group of brothers, with a father thrown in here and there. They cared about each other, even loved each other. I suddenly felt much better about Edward being off on deployment if this was how it was between them.

After everyone had left and it was just Edward and I again, in the quiet dark, he finally confessed what I knew was coming. I just didn't expect it so soon.

"I need to be in San diego in four months, instead of six," his voice was low, "The Navy will come in and pack everything up, and it'll meet us down there. We need to get moving on that house."

I nodded.

"And I'll be deploying almost immediately. I hate it. I really hate it this time."

"How long?"

"Six months, they say."

"But it could be longer."

"Could be."

"So you'll leave when I'm four months pregnant, and come back when the babies are, should be, a month old."

"I'm sorry, Bella."

"It's fine. We'll video it, right?"

"It's possible that I could come back sooner. My time with the squadron is up just a few weeks before your due date. Unless there's some big reason for me to stay, they'll send me home."

"I don't want to hold onto maybes when they aren't definite. We'll deal with it. Rose will come down before you leave. Esme will come as my due date nears, Alice probably will to. I'll be fine. It'll be fine. You worry about coming back to me whenever that is."

"I always worry about you. I love you."

"I love you, too. Twelve more years?"

He nodded against my stomach, "Twelve more years."


	12. Chapter 11

_Dearest Bella,_

_I wish I could have been there with you when you found out that we're having a boy and a girl. I'm so happy, I can't even say. I never really pictured us as parents, even when we found out you were pregnant. It's all becoming so real. I cried like a baby when I watched the video of the ultrasound. Some of the guys did too, remembering when they were missing out on the same things, or in anticipation of missing out. I'm not the only one here with a pregnant wife back home, holding down the home front. You're doing a wonderful job of it._

_Are you feeling okay? I got the pictures. You're getting huge! :) You're beautiful, as always. Even more beautiful now, though I never knew that was possible. I hope you're feeling well, and that Rose is helping out. Any word from Emmett? How is Rose coping?_

_I don't really have any opinions on the nursery colors. Do whatever you feel should be done. I'm sure my mom would be more than willing to help out, if you'd like. She's chomping at the bit to come down there and help you with everything. I got an email from her this morning going on and on about it._

_Things have been the same here. I do the same thing almost everyday. Wake up. Wait around. Go fly. Come back. Wait around. Sleep. Somewhere in there I eat three square meals each day. Work out at some point. But I'm always thinking about you._

_They're saying that I'll probably be sent home when my time with the squadron is up. Flying me out to a civilian airport and then back to San Diego, but I don't want you to put any stock in that. Just go on as if I have to do the entire deployment, because at any time, even ten minutes before I'm supposed to leave, they can come back and extend me out here. It's happened before to just about every pilot in the Navy. Besides, I think it'll be more fun to just show up and surprise you._

_I've gotta go, love, duty is calling. I love you, and I miss the hell out of you. Make sure Rose kisses your belly for me. I'm sure it's weird, but you gotta do what you gotta do._

_Love,_

_Edward_

_P.S. Are you still sure?_

_Edward,_

_The furniture we picked out has come in. Rose and I had a hell of a time putting it together. There were quite a few profanities flying out of the nursery while we worked on it! It's beautiful. Two cribs, two dressers, two changing tables, two rocking chairs... it makes it all so real now. Obviously it's real, but it seems that every new thing we take care of makes it even more real. Each day is another day closer to me giving birth, which I'm terrified of doing, yet so excited to meet our babies. I wish you could be there with me, but Rose and I have been going to some childbirth classes on base, and I think we'll handle it just fine. Thank God that I have Rose to lean on during this._

_We've painted the nursery a deep, stormy sea blue, and gone with quite an interesting theme. Rose and I split the room down the middle and one half is done in airplanes, for our little boy. Jasper even came in this past weekend and painted an aircraft carrier mural on the wall. He is so talented with art, I wonder why he didn't pursue it as a career? No matter now, I guess. He also painted a silhouette of a magical kingdom on the other side. We chose a basic chandelier to hang from the ceiling and Rose managed to install a dimmer switch. I am so impressed with her, she didn't even electrocute herself._

_I'm going to be ordering the bedding as soon as I get your opinion. I've attached photos of what I've narrowed it down to._

_I'm feeling fine, but fat. Huge as a cow, actually. The doctor says everything is moving along nicely and the babies are completely healthy. I've attached photos from the latest ultrasounds as well. I had a 3-D ultrasound done as well, and it's amazing. Really, it'll blow you away. I put the video of it in the package I sent out at the end of last week. Have you received it yet?_

_Rose is yelling at me to come eat a snack, so I better go before she loses her mind. :) She's taking care of me, though I'm not sure if she thinks she's my mother or my drill sergeant. No matter. I'm grateful for all she's done. She keeps me healthy and sane._

_I wish you were here. I miss you so much I can't even describe it. I love you._

_Love,_

_Bella_

_P.S. I am SO SURE!_

_Bella,_

_I got your package today. I'm sorry I haven't been responding as quickly as before. Flight Ops have really picked up lately. I think I'm in the air more than on the ground, these days. All is well, just training operations, but there is no email in the jet. :)_

_The ultrasound video blew me away. They're beautiful. I think they look like you! I'm glad they're healthy, and that Rose is keeping you healthy. I can't wait to see you again, and I can't wait to see our babies. I love you all so much._

_Hmm, baby bedding. I think the airplane one matches the nursery pretty well. I like that one. As for the other, I like the castle one. It matches, and of course, she is going to be a spoiled little princess. May as well stick with the theme. :)_

_I don't have much time today. I need to get a certain amount of sleep if I'm gonna be going out again tomorrow, so I need to grab something to eat and hit my rack._

_I love you, Bella. I've never missed anything as much as I miss you._

_Edward_

_Edward,_

_Had a little scare today. I thought I was in early labor, and Rose took me to the hospital. Apparently it was Braxton Hicks, like practice contractions. The doctor tried to tell me they were minor and not all that painful. I almost punched him in his stomach. Not painful my ass. If labor is going to be worse than that, I'm gonna need an epidural!_

_The babies are fine, and I am fine, everybody's fine. :) Though I am exhausted lately. I'm getting so huge, I'm convinced my stomach can't possibly get any bigger. One day it's just going to split open and the babies will fall right out!_

_Rose had a video chat with Emmett this morning. He seems to be doing well. He's at his halfway mark for his deployment, so he'll be coming here for his R&R. He and Rose were supposed to meet in Jamaica, but she refuses to leave my side. I told her to go spend time with her husband, but she refuses, and Emmett says he wants to come see me and Rose, so he should be here in a few days. I'm looking forward to seeing him, but I'm jealous. I wish the Navy had R&R halfway through deployment._

_My due date is getting closer and closer. I'm a month out, and I'm ready for it to be over. I'm technically full term now, and I've made it further than the majority of twin pregnancies, but my doctor won't induce me. Rose read online that having sex will put you in labor at this point, but I don't really have that option. :) If you were here, we would so be doing it to get these babies out of me!_

_Esme flies in tomorrow morning with Alice. Carlisle has arranged with the hospital to be able to leave and get on a plane as soon as we call and tell him that I'm labor so that he can be here. Jasper will come down with him if he can get off of work. It'll be nice to have the whole family here with me then, but I really wish you could be here. As much as I love them and am grateful for all their help, I'd trade all of them for you in a heartbeat._

_I keep hoping that you'll be sent home instead of extended and will just show up when I least expect it, but I'm not counting on it. I refuse to get my hopes up, just as you asked._

_Please stay safe._

_I love you, and I miss you._

_Love,_

_Bella_

_Edward,_

_Bella has been admitted to the hospital here on base. She went into labor late last night so we brought her in. The doctors have stopped labor for now and are giving her steroid shots, just as a precaution, to make sure the babies' lungs are as strong as possible. While it's not technically early, the longer we can keep them in the better._

_Bella is doing well. Everyone is here except for Jasper, who got called out of town at the last minute. Even Emmett is here, who surprisingly, has been her biggest comfort. He hasn't left her side in fourteen hours, not even to go to the bathroom. He said he's doing what you would do if you were here, or if it were me._

_You can reach Bella's room at 555-555-4938 Room 1205. Alice and I are taking tons of pictures and videotaping everything for you._

_Alice has just informed me that Bella's contractions are starting again, so I better go. Don't worry Edward, everything will be fine. The doctor said the babies are in a perfect position to deliver vaginally, so Bella shouldn't need a c-section, which is a good thing. I'm taking care of her, we all are._

_I have my cell on me if you can't get through the hospital system. Everything about the military is fucked up, after all._

_I'll give Bella a kiss for you, but no tongue, that's pushing it. Be safe, Edward. And be excited, you're about to be a daddy!_

_Rose_

EDWARD

"My wife is in labor," I said to myself after finishing Rose's email.

"Right now?" Newton, one of my guys, asks from beside me. I didn't realize he was there.

"Yeah, right now."

"Cheney!" he yells out to one of my other guys, get a video line set up, Cullen's wife is having the babies!

"Right now?" Cheney called back, and Newton confirmed. Suddenly our squad room was a flurry of movement as the guys get to work with some plan that I wasn't a part of.

"Cullen," Mike yelled to me, "Call your sister in law, tell her to get a laptop with a video feed in there right now. We're gonna hook ya'll up so you can be there, even though you're not really there."

"I have to be in the air in half an hour," I argued back, "I can't."

"Bullshit, I'm taking your flight. You're babies are coming man, you're not gonna miss it entirely."

EMMETT

"You got it, babe?" I ask as I feed Bella another spoonful of ice chips.

"Right here," Rose answers as she sets a laptop down on the rolling table and pushes it over Bella's hospital bed. She handed a cord to Carlisle and he plugs it in, "Do your thing, Alice."

Alice immediately starts typing away and clicking on things and suddenly Edward's voice rings through the room.

"Bella? Bella? Are you okay?"

Bella looks up at the screen, "Do I look okay?" she growled, "Two babies are clawing their way out of me!"

"You didn't get the epidural?" he asked.

"Do you know the risks of pain medication during childbirth?" Bella demanded.

"It's okay Bella, you're okay. You're the strongest person I know, you can do this."

We'd been at this for going on 29 hours. Bella had been in active labor for well over a day, and I had only left her side once, because I had to pee so bad I was about to pee down both legs, but I did it in record time and was right back by her side, where my brother should have been but couldn't be.

The doctor suddenly comes in and checks Bella again. At first it was weird, being in the same room while a doctor shoves his hand into my sister in law, the girl that had been like my little sister for as long as I could remember. Especially when she would cry out in pain from it.

"That better be the last fucking time," I growled at him, "She's in enough pain as it is."

"That's it," he sat down on a chair at the foot of the bed, "Bella, it's time to push. The baby's already crowning."

The rest of the experience is a straight up blur to me. I was holding Bella's hand and feeding her ice chips. Rose was wiping the sweat from her head while Alice and Esme each held a leg up. Carlisle was videotaping, making sure to not get any nether regions, at Bella's demand, and Edward was on the webcam, seeing everything from Bella's waist up, cheering her own, encouraging her. She responded much better with his voice in the room than she had been before.

After the first baby came out, a girl, Bella got a few minutes reprieve before the pain started up again. A couple of pushes and she had given birth to a boy. Then they delivered the placenta and, ugh, nasty stuff.

I carefully carried the laptop over to the warmer's where the babies were so Edward could see his children. He cried, but we were all crying.

"Ava...Masen...daddy's here, kind of. Daddy loves you..." he kept saying over and over again.

I brought him back over to Bella and after a few 'I love yous' and 'I'm so proud of yous,' Edward's time was up and he had to go, but he hadn't missed it. Not exactly, and that was enough for Bella. It had to be.

"Ava Sophia, and Masen Marshall," Bella announced as we all passed the babies around.

"Oh, Bella," I said, still determined to stay by her side, "They're beautiful. I can't believe you guys made that."

"I just want him home, Em."

"I know Bella, me too. Me too."


End file.
